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Welcome to my blog

Hello visitors. On my blog I'm talking about my books, but also about what I'm currently working on and, maybe, some other stuff. Browse through my posts and don't forget to check out my older posts in the archives. If you are interested in my books, please, visit my website Fictitious Tales for more information and a few excerpts. You'll find more excerpts in my old website Herbert's World. Also, take a look at my second blog Herbert Grosshans, where I talk about fun-stuff and things that concern me.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Update of sorts

Not much new to write about. I finished re-editing my two novellas ‘The Cliffs of Time’ and ‘Orion--The Hunt’, which make up ‘Dual Visions’, my white Elephant. I couldn’t believe the mistakes I had in those two novellas. It proves again, when you finish a story it is best to put it away for a while to create a distance from it, and then edit it. Our minds are strange and wonderful things. They tend to ignore certain things our eyes transmit to them. I’m sure everyone has read those ‘essays’ (I can’t think of a better word), where all the letters in the words are scrambled, as long as the first and last letter is in the right place. When you read those, your mind automatically adjusts them in the right order and you’re not even aware that they have been misspelled. That’s how it is when you read your own stories. There might be a score of mistakes, you just don’t see them. A writer is lucky indeed, if he has someone who reads for him (or her) and checks for mistakes and inconsistencies. Someone who is not afraid to point it out. I am glad I had a chance to re-do Cliffs of Time and Orion and make them better reads. We don't always get that chance. Now I hope that not too many people purchased Dual Visions, but I think I don't have to worry about that. Unfortunately, I gave away so many free copies (All those mistakes!)I sent the new versions back to Midnight Showcase and now I have to wait for new covers and then they will be released…again, as standalone novellas. Maybe then readers will pick them up because they are shorter ebooks and readers like them better than longer downloads. We’ll see.Book Two of ‘Seeds of Chaos’ never made it past number two position at Fiction Wise, too bad. Right now it is at number 12 and Book One at number 15. The Xandra books are also moving up and down.Now I can get back to my novel ‘Tarnished Valor’, which I had to put aside to edit those two novellas. I’ve written quite a lot on it, in longhand, over the last weekend, and now I have to put it into the computer. That is my first edit at the same time.